In the Air
Sky Bunny Postal Contest Results
by Chuck Imbergamo of Wind-It-Up Enterprises
The Year 2020 was been a tough one for model aviation contests because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When Free Flight (FF) modeling great and former Model Aviation columnist Bill Warner died in March 2020, we were contacted by several of Bill’s friends, hoping to have a flying contest in his honor.
After discussions with Model Aviation author Dave Gee and Ronnie Espolt, the idea of a Postal Contest seemed the most practical. Participants could fly their models on their own and send in their flight times using the honor system. The dates were set for Labor Day weekend to help ensure at least one day with flyable weather.
The choice of model for the contest was much easier. Bill designed the Sky Bunny stick model in the 1980s and it has stood the test of time as an easy-to-build FF aircraft that also happens to fly well. The model is fairly sturdy, making it a great choice for younger modelers. Because Bill had a passion for education and bringing kids into the hobby, his Sky Bunny design hit all the marks for the contest!
Over the summer, we sold hundreds of Sky Bunny kits, and the AMA sold many plans sets through the AMA Plans Service. We will never know how many Sky Bunny models were launched in Bill’s honor, but we received reports from 80 people who participated in the contest. Flight times ranged from 2 seconds to nearly 8 minutes in the air, which is truly amazing.
This was a fun contest. If you don’t believe it, consider that the youngest participant we knew of was only 4 years old and the oldest was 88! Also encouraging was that nearly a third of the known participants were under the age of 19.
It was decided that the only prize, outside of having fun, would be some recognition for the winners. We would love to publish the names of everyone who sent in their times, but following are the top three from each of the AMA age groups:
Junior Category (under age 15; 18 entries)
Winner: Daniel Carreno, 13, 1 minute, 51 seconds
Second: Gary Dietz, 10, 1 minute, 12 seconds
Third: Anona Davis, 8, 1 minute, 5 seconds
Senior Category (ages 15-18; 6 entries)
Winner: Mike Basta, age unknown, 2 minutes, 6 seconds
Second: Tomas Carreno, 16, 1 minute, 36 seconds
Third: Jeremy Brown, 15, 1 minute, 24 seconds
Open Category (age 19 or older, 56 entries)
Winner: Mike Makepeace, 72, 7 minutes, 57 seconds
Second: Vickie McClellan, unknown, 7 minutes, 30 seconds
Third: Frank Rowsome, 80, 4 minutes, 38 seconds
The Sky Bunny model truly has a universal appeal, and we plan to make this an annual Labor Day weekend event going forward. Plans are available through the AMA Plans Service at (800) 435-9626, extension 507, and at plans.modelaircraft.org. Kits are available from Peck-Polymers, owned by Wind-it-up Enterprises, at www.wind-it-up.com.
RC Scale Nats and World Championships Competitor Passes
CLIFFORD “CLIFF” TACIE, a Nats and world championship competitor, died October 10, 2020. He was featured in “I Am the AMA” in the December 2020 issue of Model Aviation.
Born September 26, 1945, in Port Huron, Michigan, he began building rubber-powered stick-and-tissue model kits from Comet and Goldberg Models. He later began building Control Line (CL) aircraft, from Cox .049 to large Fox .35 models. Cliff also built and flew Ringmasters, Flite Streaks, and a Sterling from a tarpaper “runway” that he created in his backyard.
He served in the U.S. Air Force for four years during the Vietnam War. After his service, Cliff worked for National Cash Register (NCR), which was the start of a lifelong career.
Cliff served as an AMA Leader Member and a contest director. He also volunteered at several AMA Nats as the RC Scale Event Director in the 1980s, competed in multiple U.S. Scale Masters Championships, competed in the Top Gun Invitational, and was a three-time member of the US FAI F4 Scale World Championships team.
He is survived by his wife, Ellen Tacie; two daughters; a stepdaughter; a stepson; and 11 grandchildren.
Dick Hockstein Passes
By Bob Lewis
AN AMA MEMBER and aeromodeler for roughly 80 years, Dick Hockstein, of Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, died August 25, 2020, after doing what he loved best: flying his model airplanes.
Dick, 92, had just finished an afternoon of flying when he suffered a massive stroke and passed away shortly thereafter.
Model aviation was his passion throughout his life. His closest friend, Jerry Cowan (founder and owner of the former JCR Hobby Shop in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania), was also at the model airfield that day and is deeply saddened by the loss of his closest friend.
Dick had many friends, including Hank Hankinson (owner of SonicTronics), Jay Gerber (distinguished member of the AMA), Milt Miller (founder of Coverite), and many others. Dick made his annual pilgrimage to the Toledo Show until a few years ago.
He was a member of the Southeastern Aeromodelers Radio Control Society, the Keystone Radio Control Club, the East Coast Indoor Modelers, the club at Markham Park in Florida, the Northeast Philly Flyers, and the Delaware Valley Model Airplane Club.
Right up to the end, Dick was still building airplanes. Many of his models were scratch-built. He had only a few ARFs. Building and flying his creations were his passions. He was the epitome of a model aviator.
Dick leaves behind many friends, but most importantly, his beloved wife of 62 years, Marilyn; his son, Michael; daughters Gail and Diane; grandchildren Max, Katie, and Jacob; and many nieces and nephews. His nephew, Bob Lewis (AMA 92349), was influenced by his Uncle Dick to join the aeromodeling hobby roughly 60 years ago and is still active as a member of The Ohio Radio Kontrol Society and the R/Seahawks of Cape Coral.
Dick carried along a motto with him: “Old pilots never die; they just fly away.” Dick Hockstein truly lived a life that many of us can only dream of having. The aeromodeling community will surely miss him. He was one of a kind.
AMA Member, Decorated Colonel Passes Away
A LONGTIME AMA member and decorated World War II Air Force pilot, Col. Robert “Bob” Thacker, died November 25, 2020. Bob, age 102, died in his sleep at his home in California.
Born February 21, 1918, he began aeromodeling at age 8 after seeing his neighbor’s twin pusher. In 1929, he began constructing a Spirit of St. Louis scale model. He entered his first aeromodeling competition, the Junior Birdmen of America contest, in 1930, and joined a model aircraft club in El Centro, California, in 1932.
He continued flying and building model airplanes throughout his life. He competed in the 1975 and 1976 National Scale Glider Championships, and in gas-powered Scale and Glider national competitions. He also experimented with early solar-powered air vehicles for Lockheed Aircraft.
A frequent contributor to model magazines, publishing articles about many aspects of model building and flying, Bob’s plans were published in Radio Controlled Modeler, Model Builder, and Flying Models magazines. He donated his 60-inch Kyushu Shinden RC aircraft to the National Model Aviation Museum in Muncie, Indiana.
In 2009, he was inducted into the AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame. Bob also was honored for his military service with two Silver Stars, 10 Air Medals, many Theater and Battle Stars, plus the French Croix de Guerre with palm, and three Distinguished Flying Crosses. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1939 until he retired in 1970.
He flew two combat tours, one in Europe and one in Japan, during World War II. He earned one of his Distinguished Flying Crosses for a flight of the Betty Jo, a P-82 named for his wife. That aircraft resides at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
History Preserved
THE ILLINOIS MODEL AERO CLUB COLLECTION
By Jackie Shalberg, National Model Aviation Museum Archivist and Historian
IN 1911, a few members of the full-scale Aero Club of Illinois decided to start a Chicago-based group focused on model aviation. They formed one of the first aeromodeling clubs in the US, the Illinois Model Aero Club (IMAC).
From the start, the club was active in the competitive side of model aviation. According to the July 1962 issue of Model Aviation magazine, the IMAC held its first competition in December of 1911, “... when a flight of 90 feet was good enough to win first prize. By 1915, the art of aeromodeling had progressed to the state where club members succeeded in smashing four world records. By the year 1928, the IMAC held every national outdoor record for distance and duration, and over half of the indoor records” (p.14).
The group helped create the annual national aeromodeling contest that lives on today as the Nats. The members were not only competitive, they encouraged others to compete.
Nearly a century later, in 2018, the National Model Aviation Museum had an opportunity to obtain a large collection of materials that originated from the club and its early members. The museum does not have a line item in its budget for purchasing artifacts; however, in rare cases, with help from the
AMA Foundation, the museum can raise funds for a particularly unique collection. This was one such collection.
The Museum Patron Fund was used for 20% of the cost, and 80% was donated by model enthusiasts. In the collection were model aircraft, trophies, medals, posters, pins, photographs, albums, papers, books, magazines, and much more. Most of the items are dated between the 1910s and 1940s.
The museum continues to add images and descriptions of our artifacts to the internet through the Digital Collections, and the Illinois Model Aero Club Collection is one of our most recent additions to that site. You can find records of many of the items at https://modelaircraft.pastperfectonline.com using the phrase “Illinois Model Aero Club Collection” (with quotation marks) in the keyword search.
We have included a couple of images of items from the collection here to give you a taste of what you will find on the website.
Do you want to see more of our collections? Click on the tabs at the top to see Objects, Books, or Archives, or click on Highlights and you’ll see images of random items.
A huge thanks goes out to our donors for all of their financial support! Are you interested in donating to the museum? You can find out more in our Donation Guide at www.modelaircraft.org/museum/donate/museum-donation-guide.
APPLY NOW FOR TAG GRANTS
APPLICATIONS FOR 2021 Take off And Grow (TAG) grants are now available. Clubs have until February 1, 2021, to apply for these funds.
AMA awards up to $1,000 to clubs that implement a TAG program in their local communities. TAG programs provide newcomers to model aviation and youth an opportunity to learn about the hobby, as well as practice flying model aircraft with experienced club members. TAG grants are awarded each year, thanks to the generous support of AMA members and AMA Foundation patrons across the country.
To be awarded a TAG grant, clubs must demonstrate how their program introduces the hobby to the public and how it positively impacts the community, as well as how its program will continue to engage and sustain contact with participants. The TAG grant program exists to encourage clubs to build community partnerships, educate the public about a safe and fun recreational activity, and promote the endurance of the hobby for many years to come.
On December 9, 2020, the AMA Foundation held a livestream with a 2020 TAG recipient, Capital Area Radio Drone Squadron. You can watch it at www.youtube.com/modelaircraft.
To learn more about the grant program, visit www.modelaircraft.org/grants.
